What the latest Facebook changes mean for social media managers

Facebook is tweaking its timeline design, and changes are rolling out already for personal pages. That means brand managers should start preparing, because it’s likely the changes will also take effect for company pages.

Last month, ABC was the first to report on these changes, which at the time were only hypothetical. A Facebook spokesperson told the news outlet the changes aimed to “make navigating timeline even easier.”

Most of the changes are minor design tweaks, and will likely improve the experience:

On your page, posts will appear in a single column on the left, rather than being divided across two columns.

The features below the cover photo are decreasing in size and will no longer feature a photo—your design department will be ecstatic about not having to make tiny icons for each seldom clicked tab.

In initial designs, your name overlays the cover photo, which will allow for some interesting cover photo design choices to incorporate the name.

The right side of the page can be reordered, so maps, friends and photos can move around as you see fit. Since there’s not a huge emphasis put on this part of the page for brands, I’m not sure this will be hugely revolutionary.

For personal pages, “subscribers” will now be called “followers.” (Sound familiar, Twitter users?) No word on whether this will mean your “fans” will now be known as your “followers.”

Facebook tab engagement plummeted in the wake of the timeline launch, and it looks as though that trend will continue, because it’s not immediately evident where they’ll live for brand pages. Facebook’s de-emphasizing of tabs means that smart page managers should push back when clients proclaim they want a tab.